Tuesday, November 8, 2011

When I got off at the Pul Bangash metro station (which thanks to Kavita and Unmana I know got its name from the when the Bangash tribe settled near a bridge) that I glanced out of the station and saw this tower.

I thought it was a church and walked out to see it. Its not.

It is the Roshanara mansion, and that is all I could find out about it. I would love to know when it was built and by whom. But while I don't have any factual information about it, I know this: its residents are warm and friendly folk.

I walked in the approximate direction of the tower, and found myself in a narrow road with high walls on either side. I stood there, craning my neck to catch a glimpse of that lovely iron dome when a young policeman came along and raised an eyebrow at me.

I saw a lovely tower, I told him, and I came looking for it. Is it a church? Would he know where it is?
That was no church, he told me, and instructed me to follow him. He turned into a narrow opening in the wall and up a steep flight of stairs.

And there I was, inside Roshanara Mansion. looking at a beautiful weather vane over a set of roofs. The building is now divided up into several small apartments, of maybe one or two small rooms each. I was ooh-ing over the weather vane when a woman came out of one of these apartments. We got to chatting, and it ended with her inviting me over for tea.

I am not sure if I would do that if I found a stranger gawking at my house- I hope I would.

4 comments:

I would .if that stranger was this beautiful woman with eyes that saw beauty in the ordinary. Who walked a narrow road with high walls, went through a narrow door, up a steep flight of stairs.And when this stranger told me how she mistook for a holy place,this house in which I had a two-room home,To make her stay a little longerI would put the kettle on.

Hi, I came across this blog post of yours on Roshanara Mansion. To give you more information, it used to be a German brewery which got converted into a residence for the owners of a furniture factory called Hyde & Company. My grandfather was an employee there who took it over after the owner left after the partition.

The residence was converted into 10 different houses. We had a lovely childhood there. There were great open spaces and three generations of neighbours lived and intermingled. No people have moved on both in time and space.